Monday, 3 July 2017

For the second day of diving in Aqaba, I was lucky enough to be invited along with Bruno to do a couple of boat dives with Dive Aqaba, a dive school located adjacent to Aqaba International Dive Centre. It was my dive guide Bruno's last day and Amjab the owner of Dive Aqaba had asked Bruno if he fancied diving from the boat. After doing two shore dives the previous day, I was extremely keen to do some giant leaps and so happily tagged along!

Sunday, 2 July 2017

After a few days visiting Petra and Wadi Rum, we headed on down south towards the sea. I contacted a few dive centres in Aqaba and the staff at Aqaba International Dive Centre were the first to respond with a friendly, informative reply.

My dive guide was Bruno and I was lucky that the group only consisted of him and myself. Bruno was very helpful, chilled out and a pleasure to dive with.

On the same day that I was diving here, guy was filming a short piece on scuba diving for a local TV station called Roya TV. I tried my best to stay out the way sitting in the corner while we waited to go diving. You can just see me in the background when the presenter is talking outside the dive centre. From the video you can also get an idea of the great visibility, varied underwater life and nice dive site offering easy access for a shore dive:

Mohamed Qatawneh, the manager of the centre was great and, like Bruno, also very friendly. I'd highly recommend diving with these guys. There was a third diver working there who was a little annoying; he tried to insist that I wore a wetsuit even though I told him I regularly dived in the Persian Gulf using only my rash vest. When I was asking for my weights he also tried to get me to wear an extra 2kg of weight - just to be sure. I can understand dive guides trying to be on the safe side when teaching inexperienced students but when I had already shown by dive certification and logged dives it kind of put a bit of a dampener on the start of the dives. I tried to stay away from him which wasn't too difficult as he was taking two ladies on a snorkelling trip.

As it was shore diving we drove down the coast to the area which we could access both the Cedar Pride and Japanese Garden.

Dives

About Me

I'm an EFL teacher and ICT Coordinator currently based in the Middle East. I've been teaching for over 10 years and speak Italian and Spanish. I am currently completing an MA in TESOL with a specialism in Educational Technology.
My other hobbies include cycling, travelling and scuba diving. I’m fascinated by the underwater world and aquatic life. I learned to dive with BSAC and I am now a PADI MSDT EFR instructor with Nitrox, U/W Photography, Deep Diving, Wreck Diving and Underwater Navigator Instructor specialities. I try to participate in as many recreational dives as possible and enjoy taking friends to try scuba diving.